r/interestingasfuck • u/Endolithic • Jun 06 '25

Homes are falling into the ocean in North Carolina's Outer Banks /r/all

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434

u/ImaJustYeetRightByYa Jun 06 '25 edited Jun 07 '25

For everyone politicizing this, marine scientist here.

I'm fairly certain this is from last year's storm season, when there were very strong onshore winds. The outer banks are a barrier island. The houses are built on stilts to prevent flooding during times like this, during storm surge. The houses aren't built on the water. Yes, the houses are built near the ocean, but really there isn't alot of space otherwise and the shore has changed considerably even in the last 20 years. The dunes have eroded, and the shoreline has creeped closer and closer to the dune line every year.

I believe we will live to see large portions of the outer banks become entirely inundated with water, and the problem is very much due to rising seas and increased storm occurrence and strength. Saying it's the homebuilder's fault is simply untrue and comes from a position of not understanding.

It's a complicated geological problem, not a political one. Try better.

Editing because a lot of politics/not politics discussion is happening. I made this comment because early comments to this post were mainly laughing at the stilts and being close to water without taking into consideration that the state of public sentiment, research, and conditions were at a different place when a lot of these structures were built. Yes, climate change is political. What I'm arguing here is that the drivers of the change we see in this post is due to climate change and its effects, not just building location and standards. And yes, those play a role too in not taking early science seriously but again, the driving force of change is the climate change itself. If conditions were stable, and coastal erosion was manageable/offset by deposition we wouldn't be having this conversation.

Edit 2: the amount of replies to this comment that start with "I mean,..." is crazy.

27

u/keepitloki80 Jun 06 '25

I was gonna say, this video looked REALLY familiar.

171

u/black_cat_X2 Jun 06 '25

I mean, it sounds like the root cause of the things you're describing (rising seas, increased storm occurrence and strength) is climate change. Which is very much a politicized issue. Can't blame people for noticing that.

86

u/triflers_need_not Jun 06 '25

It shouldn't be political, because it's an extremely proven fact at this point, but some people have to call everything that gets in the way of their wallet increasing "fake news" and "too political".

65

u/aneeta96 Jun 06 '25

We have a president that started a feud with the National Weather Service for correctly predicting the path of a hurricane ands you are surprised that global warming is politicized?

17

u/triflers_need_not Jun 06 '25

I'm not surprised, I'm responding to the commenter saying "for everyone making it political"

30

u/ImaJustYeetRightByYa Jun 06 '25

Valid - I suppose I meant it more along the lines that it's a scientific fact and certainty, not a political opinion.

8

u/What_Iz_This Jun 06 '25

Problem is only 1 side believes in scientific fact and the other side has brainwashed their following into believing vaccines make you magnetic.

5

u/ImaJustYeetRightByYa Jun 06 '25

I wish vaccines made me magnetic that'd be fuckin sick

11

u/antihero_84 Jun 06 '25

Barrier islands move without impacts from climate change, too.

7

u/buzzyloo Jun 06 '25

Barrier islands have been shifting since oceans began.

3

u/Inevitable_Positive2 Jun 06 '25

ocean coast lines will continue to change climate change or not. Most big beach towns get their beaches replenished by pumping in sand from a ways out and building dunes. Without that, you get this. Moreso on a barrier island. I think the federal govt pays for most of it but I think local and states are on the hook for a good portion as well

2

u/TheGreatDudebino Jun 06 '25

Of course climate change is a factor but the outer banks are also just one huge sand bar that is constantly changing and has changed drastically over the last 1000 years. These things were bound to happen with or without climate change. Could it have sped up the process? Sure. But it’s not the root cause. The root cause is that the outer banks are in one of the more turbulent parts of the Atlantic. It’s the graveyard of the Atlantic for a reason. There are sandbars located off of OBX that are miles upon miles away, that come and go with the water.

OBX’s demise was always occurring, before we were here and well after we’re gone. Climate change has sped up the process but by no means is the root cause.

0

u/PeaDifficult2909 Jun 06 '25

Yeah the comment above you is just the most right-washing bullshit. 

It's a way too common attempt to try and make right wing anti-science more palatable to the ignorant.

0

u/Lat03 Jun 06 '25

Except it’s not. Do some research on barrier islands. Specifically cape Hatteras.

25

u/mwana Jun 06 '25

What is causing the geological issues?

33

u/SgtPeterson Jun 06 '25

If only we had some kind of science of the climate to help inform us on this

7

u/ImaJustYeetRightByYa Jun 06 '25

Simply put, the rate of deposition is less than the rate of erosion (in most places along the OBX). And it's a function of currents, tides, and sediment mobility. It's a very complicated system that has many factors that are hard to track and measure. Some of our more successful models are ocean–atmosphere–wave–sediment models, which are effectively models that consider bathymetry (the shape and 'topography' of the seafloor), winds (atmosphere), waves (physical energy impact to shoreline), and sediment (i.e. silt moves more than large coral rubble). So really its a geophysical-meteorological problem but that's for my day job not reddit :)

-2

u/MAGAtsAreRetards Jun 06 '25

So climate change is a big problem. Weird how you say that’s political when it’s scientifically proven.

1

u/Stardust_Particle Jun 06 '25

Global warming

32

u/shadowmage666 Jun 06 '25 edited Jun 06 '25

You don’t need to be a marine scientist to know not to build your house on stilts next to the water 😂😂

6

u/m1a2c2kali Jun 06 '25

Probably would have been destroyed by floods way earlier if it weren’t built on stilts

9

u/TigerB65 Jun 06 '25

At the time they were built, they were set back quite far from the water's edge, in compliance with local ordinances.

1

u/SinisterRaven6 Jun 06 '25

Those ordinances existed because water is known to come up to those areas.

8

u/irishchug Jun 06 '25

Millions of houses are built on stilts along the coast, and most are in stable places, but you build on stilts because of very occasional storm surge that may occur every few years.

2

u/Upset-Bet9303 Jun 07 '25

They are built on stilts by the water specifically for that reason. 

17

u/nannerzbamanerz Jun 06 '25

I appreciate your response, not just the science but the history and space issues.

Except the last few words: the right is not only just denying climate change, they are removing it from legislation. They are forcing politics onto the geologic problem. Which means that yes, there is something we can do about this.

5

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '25

[deleted]

1

u/nannerzbamanerz Jun 06 '25

I thought it was just DeSantis in Florida, but you are right, there is more than one state including NC that are trying/doing https://www.livescience.com/50085-states-outlaw-climate-change.html

Edit: it’s an old article about states that tried in the past. Florida and DeSantis might be the only one that has made it.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '25

[deleted]

1

u/nannerzbamanerz Jun 06 '25

As I read regular news less and less, I find I’m getting more information by reading comments. Hopefully someone sees ours and realizes how screwed up the GOP has gotten.

2

u/Mochafudge Jun 06 '25

These houses would have to be permitted by a government I have no idea how he was so spot on and then ended with that wild sentence lol "do better" Edit: it's actually "try better"

1

u/nannerzbamanerz Jun 06 '25

Their point was that the houses were built to protect against flooding, not so much the rising sea and storms. The local permits originally making more sense for this case.

I’m taking they meant don’t make it political as in don’t make it right vs left. But the stilts aren’t protecting against climate change, which is what the right is denying exists.

25

u/Cielmerlion Jun 06 '25

I mean, it's absolutely a the homebuilders fault. Why are there barrier islands? What do they do? Are they stable places which to build something permanent? Not political? What exactly is causing the sea level rise and stronger weather? What political party is destroying all types of ecological protections in favor of profit and fossil fuels?

3

u/Jr05s Jun 06 '25

No home is permanent. This isn't a new home. It gots years of use before the sea moved 100s of feet to reclaim it. 

1

u/kevinthebaconator Jun 06 '25

I mean yeah.. But the risks of most homes being destroyed by nature in 99.9999% of cases is basically zero. It's not fair to compare these homes with the rest.

10

u/MagneticEnema Jun 06 '25

i mean, it is absolutely the home builders fault lmfao, "isnt space otherwise" i mean they literally built a house on stilts, doesnt take a fucking genius to realize it's a risk, they decided the view on the barrier island was worth the risk of this shit happening

4

u/Unusual-External4230 Jun 06 '25

This house is probably at least 35 years old, possibly 40-60 years old. The beach would've been 100+ft away, at least, when it was built.

The stilts aren't due to this, it's due to storm surges that come with seasonal hurricanes that can cause water to flood the entire area, this type of thing is very common on the NC coast where most houses are built on stilts. You'll drive miles and see houses built the same way, many of which are a long way off the beach itself.

Not sure how well aware people were of the risks of this when these older beach houses were built, but I doubt anyone went to that effort knowing this would be the outcome.

1

u/MagneticEnema Jun 06 '25

these arent indigenous people, lmfao these are folks that wanted to build a house on the water front

6

u/RunningonGin0323 Jun 06 '25

Stil building homes despite everything you said is exactly why it's the home builders fault.

3

u/wetwalnut Jun 06 '25

Not to mention the erosion between the islands like Hatteras and Ocracoke redirecting inlet storm surge.

2

u/CitizenPremier Jun 06 '25

How is rising seawater and global warming not political? Do you know how much money oil companies put into politics?

2

u/CHamsterdam Jun 06 '25

If you don’t think this is a political issue then idk what to tell you boss

2

u/Headless_HanSolo Jun 06 '25

Book reader here, also scientist of aquatic pursuits. In the 1950’s a Duke University professor made an aerial map of the entire coast of NC. He then produced a map of likely areas where beach erosion was guaranteed to happen, highly likely, likely and not. He published his work and presented it to the state legislature and municipal townships where extensive recreational development was just beginning. Guess who didn’t take the scientists advice? Guess who was proven right in the last 60+ years of coastal erosion, bad FEMA policy, poor governance and the inevitable loss of property and structures? These people are absolutely to blame because they chose greed and development over precaution and proper planning.

1

u/ImaJustYeetRightByYa Jun 06 '25

Super valid and good point. I think my main issue is that most on the right are quick to point the finger at anything other than what's driving the issue in the first place. I completely agree that environmental policy has failed to take science seriously over the last 60+ years, and that greed was a huge driving force behind that failure.

To me I just think it's important to get across that this is an issue now, and isn't happening just because policymakers failed the public, but rather its happening because coastal erosion is accelerating and causing effects like this video.

Climate change, and by proxy increased inundation, storm risk, and coastal erosion is going to vary from the FL Keys to Maine, but is absolutely going to be an issue we need to contend with. I just want to make sure we are calling out the issue and not just the folks that made the poor decisions in the first place.

The OBX is limited in what is impacted because it is such a small area, but when miami gets hit by a major hurricane and the flooding is much worse than it would have been, or Corpus Christi, TX, or anywhere along the Northern Gulf, we need to be mindful that this is a physics issue we all deal with and is happening because of climate change, not because builders built in the wrong spot.

If thats the case, we gotta blame towns that get hit with landslides for building near mountains, houses that burn to forest fires for building near forests, houses that are built near rivers being lost to floods, etc.,.

The problem is very much bigger than original location choice, but you are making a super salient point!

3

u/katelledee Jun 06 '25

This video is more than a year old, so no, it’s not from last year’s storm season.

1

u/Morezingis Jun 06 '25

It’s from Hurricane Helene from September 2024, so yes, it’s from last year’s storm season. 

https://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/2024/09/25/watch-vacant-outer-banks-house-collapses-into-ocean/75375867007/

The pure unpleasantness that you confidently incorrect Redditors type with is just gross. 

0

u/katelledee Jun 07 '25

I’m sorry, are you under the grossly mistaken impression that somehow that counts as a source? Because this is the sum total of that article “Another home collapsed into the ocean on the Outer Banks island of Hatteras in North Carolina”. That’s it. No mention of when or why it collapsed, you are making the assumption that the date the article was posted is the day it happened. You’d be incorrect.

Talk about being confidently wrong 🤣🤣

0

u/Morezingis Jun 07 '25

You can’t be this stupid. It has to be a shtick. 

But just in case you’re serious, here’s the local news report when it happened.

I’m also a local. Your smarmy ass might want to just move along on this one and stop embarrassing yourself. 

3

u/letskeepitcleanfolks Jun 06 '25

Yes, the houses are built near the ocean, but really there isn't alot of space otherwise

There is a ton of space, you know, on the mainland. Sea level has risen about 3 inches in the last 30 years. That's not why these homes are suddenly inundated. Barrier islands move and storms happen. Building here is just littering with extra steps.

3

u/MagneticEnema Jun 06 '25

right? what a lame ass excuse, "isnt a lot of space" i mean sure if you demand beach front property and build a house on stilts, if that shit comes down, thats on you

3

u/Major_Shlongage Jun 06 '25

I strongly disagree.

Even when these houses were built it was known that the ocean would eventually overrun them, which is why they were built on stilts in the first place. But the financial motive to build closer to the water is just too strong.

Everyone knew what barrier islands are. This is nothing new.

1

u/protossaccount Jun 06 '25

Ya that’s sandy shore, that stuff can change like crazy. I surf and sand breaks are constantly shifting. That’s nothing compared to a crazy geological issue.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '25

But I mean…it kinda is their fault? Who the fuck builds a house that close to the ocean without researching what could happen? Do they not listen about climate change? Do they not watch news & see others just like them bitching about rebuilding every couple years?

I’m not saying they have to be scientists or biologists but goddamn. We have televisions, Internet, radio & newspapers. This level of stupid shouldn’t be possible & definitely not encouraged or justified.

1

u/prontoon Jun 06 '25

"There isn't a lot of space"

OK, simple solution. Move inland more.

There is 0 reason to need to be close to the water, especially if "There isn't a lot of space".

1

u/Cakeking7878 Jun 06 '25

While it is in fact a complicated geological problem as you stated, it by proxy is also a political one that the science is quite clear on. We’ve known the effects of climate change will exacerbate storms but some choose to push the consequences onto the future. That future is here now and so the only option left for them is to close their eyes and pretend it’s someone else’s fault

2

u/ImaJustYeetRightByYa Jun 06 '25

Completely agree, I guess I was more tilted by the early commenters laughing at the stilts and how close to the water they were without knowing anything about coastal erosion and exacerbated conditions due to climate change. We in agreement king

1

u/unktrial Jun 06 '25

Everything you said acknowledges the fact that building a home there is stupid.

  1. "storm season"

  2. "strong onshore winds"

  3. "barrier island"

  4. "storm surge"

  5. "near the ocean"

  6. "isn't a lot of space"

  7. "shore has changed considerably even in the last 20 years"

  8. "dunes have eroded"

  9. "shoreline has creeped closer and closer to the dune line"

And yet you still ignore the obvious conclusion - the home builder is maliciously greedy or stupid and insist that geology is the real problem.

This is some serious selfawarewolves bs.

1

u/ImaJustYeetRightByYa Jun 06 '25

Nah G, this some hindsight bias if I ever seent it. I did some cursory research, but a good chunk of these oceanfront homes were built in the 80s when conditions were considerably different.

All of those factors are part of the 'risk' living in coastal communities. You don't victim blame the homeowner or builder and ignore what is causing the current issue because that's the narrative that supports your viewpoint.

Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of qualms about coastal construction myself, and contemporarily in the OBX, greedy home builders are very much part of the problem now. But they're building mcmansions on concrete blocks now that block the quaint houses further back and making a quick buck so I do agree with you on that.

There are a lot more restrictions in coastal construction nowadays, that's part of learning through experience and adapting to changing conditions (see huge changes in construction requirements in Florida, which are really well documented) - something humans are usually pretty good at. But you need to be able to recognize the nuance and contributing factors over time or else you end up just believing whatever aligns closest to your worldview.

Happy to discuss further if you'd like, I don't think we're very far apart on this, but the climate change piece is a major factor and not simply a failure of civil engineering.

1

u/zdrads Jun 06 '25

It's the homebuilders fault.

You need to consider the direction and potential of change from natural and manmade causes when you build a home. Environmental risk assessment... We've known sea levels have been rising for quite a while now. We know the cause, even if many won't admit it because it's uncomfortable. If you build your home directly on an ocean beach and you haven't said to yourself, "gee, the oceans are rising - how could this impact my house?", then you're doing it wrong.

1

u/ImaJustYeetRightByYa Jun 06 '25

Sure, if you're building a house there today. That's without hindsight bias. These homes were built 40-50 years ago when conditions were much different and the state of research on the matter was much less.

So agreed, but blaming contemporary homebuilders for the impacts of climate change that were not taken seriously 40-50 years ago (let alone today) is putting our focus on the wrong thing imo.

1

u/cheddarben Jun 06 '25

Saying it's the homebuilder's fault is simply untrue

I am about as left as they come, but let's be real here. Motherfuckers built these on sticks.... because of the water.

1

u/Wachiavellee Jun 06 '25

I mean if it's partially due to rising seas and increased storm occurrence and strength, and those things are linked to anthropogenic climate change, it is by definition a political problem, at least in part. I'm not sure how one could argue it isn't.

1

u/Mochafudge Jun 06 '25

Politics allows these people to build there, if the government strictly followed science then those houses would never be there. Everything except that part is dead on but yeah it's insanely political. Climate change has been proven for a long long time and politicians gave these people the confidence to make a bad decision. You aren't talking about strictly the shore you are talking about the homes permitted to be built on the shore it is literally political.

1

u/Secret-Departure540 Jun 06 '25

Yes. I went here for the first time at 12. I hated it the first day. Two days later never wanted to leave. Duck was a dirt road.   

1

u/Beginning_Clue_7835 Jun 06 '25

There’s a lot of military bases in that area isn’t there? Do you think those will be ok?

1

u/v3rT1cL3_MGMT_idIOTs Jun 06 '25

I was thinking the same!

1

u/GrizzlyIsland22 Jun 06 '25

I get all this, but logically, if a person has to put their house on stilts because of this possibility, the only thing that makes real sense would simply be to find a different place to live.

1

u/Boston-Common Jun 06 '25

Technically, it's a geopolitical problem because global warming is overwhelmingly likely to be caused by people. And it can only be fixed at the political scale.

1

u/Aedeus Jun 06 '25

It's a complicated geological problem, not a political one. Try better.

My brother in Christ, how is this not political?

You do realize that only one political party has decided that arguably the biggest factor contributing to that "complicated geological problem" - is entirely made up?

"Try better"? Lol, lmao even.

1

u/Rivusonreddit Jun 06 '25

What if I built my house under a volcano and it erupts and I die? Is that a complicated geological problem too?

1

u/Lat03 Jun 06 '25

Not sea level rise. You’re right though, Cape Hatteras is a barrier island. Aka a giant sandbar. Which has been shifting west for the entirety of its existence. These homes are located north of rodanthe, which has always been susceptible to eroding. Mother Nature intends there to be an inlet there. Hence why NC dot built that new jug handle bridge a few years back. Sea level rise has ZERO influence here.

1

u/Significant-Horse625 Jun 06 '25

Why isn't your post at the top?! I saw this on another post and posted these questions there: What really happens with these? Isn't that polluting the ocean? How'd they get furniture in there? Must have been abandoned for years and uninsured. Strange, not to do a controlled demolition. Recycle the wood or something. That close to the ocean I can't see that wood...nevermind. Who owns these homes? I have so many questions! Lol!  *You answered them. Thank you. 

1

u/Nodan_Turtle Jun 06 '25

Way I figure, if you can't build a house somewhere without putting it on stilts, then you don't need some sort of advanced research to know there's going to be problems.

1

u/FairState612 Jun 07 '25

Climate change isn’t political though.

1

u/kittycatluvrrrr Jun 07 '25

You’re absolutely right. I have photos of this exact area shortly after this house fell, October 2024.

1

u/spiritual_seeker Jun 07 '25

So when is the end of the world? Five years, 10 years, 20 years, 2,000? When exactly is doomsday?

1

u/dreamsindarkness Jun 07 '25

I remember when this made news in 2012. Unfortunately it becomes political due to what North Carolina state government did.. https://abcnews.go.com/US/north-carolina-bans-latest-science-rising-sea-level/story?id=16913782.

Denying science, and reality, because it effects developers.

1

u/Maelstrom52 Jun 07 '25

I mean, not for nothing, but maybe this just isn't a good place to build homes? I live in California and we have a lot of beachfront property, but nothing literally on the beachfront. Most of the homes are well into the back shore zone.. It would take a tidal wave or a tsunami for those homes to get flooded. If that type of thing doesn't exist in North Carolina, it might not be the best idea to be building homes on stilts in a place where they can get flooded. Also, how does plumbing work in those homes and how does electricity get to those homes in a safe way?

1

u/DemandPsychological Jun 09 '25

You got it backwards. Global climate change is caused by political issues, not the other way around. Think about it.

1

u/litsax Jun 06 '25

It’s only a political problem because half of the country has politicized the reality of climate change 

1

u/FuManBoobs Jun 06 '25

And the other half thinks it's a conspiracy to get taxes.

2

u/litsax Jun 06 '25

If you think liberals are the ones politicizing you, then I challenge you to read any of the myriad of published papers on climate change. I’d recommend one like https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/syr/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_SYR_FullVolume.pdf which is a good overview of historic and current data. 

Climate change isn’t a political issue. It’s our reality and inevitability. Conservatives, at the behest of oil conglomerates, have politicized climate science at the expense of our future. 

1

u/sunny_yay Jun 06 '25

Choosing to believe you when you say “rising seas” is most definitely a political issue.

0

u/Apprehensive-Key5665 Jun 06 '25

👏🏼👏🏼

0

u/Friengineer Jun 06 '25

Architect here. Our clients in Florida are now accounting for rising sea levels in site selection (can't make money if your building will be under water in 15 years), and they ask us for help because FEMA flood maps are frequently too outdated to be useful. It's a complicated geological problem made worse by politics.

0

u/NJNeal17 Jun 06 '25

Thank you! My family has vacationed down there for DECADES and the water was SO far off! It's easy to call foul AFTER all the damage to the environment that wasn't caused by these few on these tiny islands! They did a great job of keeping people off of the dunes that were their safety net. If everyone was seeing a before and after they'd be wow'd

0

u/mamaneedsacar Jun 06 '25

Thank you. I grew up somewhere with lots of pile homes. The thing is, some of these houses are close to a hundred years old. Even looking at the ones in this video, I’d guess they were built in the 70s and 80s. It’s truly astounding how much climate change, rising sea levels and erosion have changed our coastlines. Most of the pile homes in my hometown were set back 100 or more feet from the shore. People were not building homes in the water. In many cases the stilts were added a few decades later to protect in case of flooding.

Anyways, due to increased storm activity, wind, etc. erosion has advanced quickly. Homes that were built safely back from the coast a hundred years ago now look like they could fall into the sea (just like this) during the next big storm. Can’t exactly blame people for not anticipating this level of environmental destruction back when few of them had even seen an automobile.

0

u/Important-Point9409 Jun 06 '25

SO with the sea level rising so much as everybody is claiming over the past 20 years, why has there been zero noticeable difference? Look at historic pictures of the statue of liberty island, and look at ones that are current. The sea level against the wall is unchanged. That's one spot where it's easy to find pictures from over 100 years ago to compare the sea level against today.

1

u/DudeInTheGarden Jun 06 '25

Ya, what were the tides on the day 100 years ago? Trying to compare two photos of the sea level 100 years apart is not possible.

Why don't you go look at some glacier photos. Here's a page of glaciers from Alaska over time.

https://www.alaska.org/blog/alaska-glaciers-then-now

If it's not climate change, what is it? And where did all that extra water go? It didn't cause the oceans to rise? So where is it?

0

u/Important-Point9409 Jun 06 '25

Ice melted. Sea level MAYBE has risen a few hundreths of an inch. That's negligible. If the sea was rising as much as people are claiming, there are plenty of areas around the world that have permanent fixtures or landmarks at the waters edge that would be underwater now, but they aren't. I'm not saying the climate isn't changing, but I'm not willing to subscribe to the fearmongering of the world is going to overheat and oceans are flooding the lands and soon the coast will be totally different because of the sea level rise. I live at the sea. I see it every day. Nothing is changing in regards to the sea level. Beach erosion is natural.

1

u/ImaJustYeetRightByYa Jun 06 '25

u/DudeInTheGarden this person is completely lost in the sauce, and isn't worth engaging with. Gunna die with their ways. We can go spend our energy in a better place :)

1

u/DudeInTheGarden Jun 06 '25 edited Jun 06 '25

I guess, best case, one day when the second "historic storm" happens a month after the first rather than over a 100 year period - Kentucky had three historic storms recently - he'll think back to this. At that point, maybe he'll wonder if maybe he should listen to people who spent decades becoming experts rather than his own inexpert observations. Probably a pipe dream.

Where I live, a big and fast moving river used to freeze over in the winter, with the ice thick enough for a car to drive over. Now it doesn't freeze at all.

I took my kids for a hike into the Canadian Rockies. We passed a sign placed by the Alpine Club of Canada in 1911, indicating that it was the location of the terminus of the Robson Glacier. We hiked for another hour before we came to it.

https://preview.redd.it/z7bd70pmrd5f1.png?width=1180&format=png&auto=webp&s=cdb943fe69616a4206a781a6096a86fab6152355

Edit: corrected my terminology and specified the name of the glacier.

1

u/DudeInTheGarden Jun 06 '25

https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-global-sea-level

  • Global average sea level has risen 8–9 inches (21–24 centimeters) since 1880.
  • In 2023, global average sea level set a new record high—101.4 mm (3.99 inches) above 1993 levels.
  • The rate of global sea level rise is accelerating: it has more than doubled from 0.06 inches (1.4 millimeters) per year throughout most of the twentieth century to 0.14 inches (3.6 millimeters) per year from 2006–2015. 

It's not Santa Claus. It's not about belief.

1

u/ImaJustYeetRightByYa Jun 06 '25

Liberty island and the outer banks are very very different structures. You mentioned it yourself, it's completely encased in a seawall. The cement isnt eroding away like a shoreline is.

And it's not a matter of just the water getting higher, which also varies by location. I.e. the water is raising at a different rate in NY than NC, and it has to do with the Coriolis effect, currents, etc.,. The main problem is the negative feedback loop that starts to happen.

Wave energy is a function of depth, and when the depth gets deeper, more energy reaches the shore. When more energy reaches the shore, more erosion occurs. The increased erosion leads to deeper waters that then have more wave energy and yada yada they compile on each other. So while the sea level may only be a few mm a year, its % wise much higher than it has been, and higher than the conditions under which the barrier islands formed in the first place. So with the compounding change of sea level and bathymetry, effective sea level rise (in terms of wave energy) is much higher, and leads to much more erosion.

Since you like to google historic pictures, google historic pictures of the outer banks, and erosion pictures from winter storms in the last couple years.

There's your important point for the day, happy to elaborate on anything if you'd like.

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u/Important-Point9409 Jun 06 '25

Erosion has nothing to do with sea level rise, that's exactly why I picked a concrete wall as a reference. Everybody loves to claim the sea is rising when all that's actually being observed is beach erosion. I can easily wait for a high king tide with the right winds and then go take some pictures at the beach of the flooded roads and say " see how it floods at high tide now thanks to the ocean rising?" but nobody will know that that same street goes underwater at every king tide with a northwest wind and has for the past 25 years I've lived here.

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u/ImaJustYeetRightByYa Jun 06 '25

OK, boomer. This clearly isn't a problem for you to understand and you're keen on ignoring what I said and existing in your echo chamber. Have fun with that, not my job to understand it for you, but I'll try to summarize it again for you in a short message.

Small amounts of sea level rise lead to INCREASED rates of erosion, which lead to INCREASED wave action onshore, leading to INCREASED inundation and erosion.

I don't know where you live, but if it's not a barrier island you also have to contend with land subsidence due to water use but if you're unable to understand sea level rise I'll let you continue to live in your ignorance. Have a nice weekend.

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u/Chemical-Run-4944 Jun 06 '25

It's a political problem when taxpayers have to insure this shit.

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u/orange_sherbetz Jun 06 '25

It is the homebuilder's fault for choosing to build here.

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u/ImaJustYeetRightByYa Jun 06 '25

mk get a time machine and go back to 1980 and tell them that, I'm over addressing this comment hahaha.

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u/orange_sherbetz Jun 06 '25

Coastal erosion studies have been published in the 80s -90s.

Greed (and stupidity) always wins tho.

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u/TheRealHoda Jun 07 '25

If your foundation is stilts you are too damn close to water. No amount of fancy word smithing or empathy will change that. Your desire to be close to water is not the public’s fault. Pay for your dumb wants — not needs.

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u/ImaJustYeetRightByYa Jun 07 '25

Nice AI em dash lmao.